Iran Warns Nigeria To Release Shia Muslim Cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky

Iran is warning Nigeria to release the Shia Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky. The country has said it is using all diplomatic channels to pursue the release of El-Zakzaky who was arrested by the Nigerian army last month.

“We have used all those channels to warn Nigeria regarding this issue. So hopefully the government… would adopt wise action given the sensitive situation,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hoseyn Jaberi-Ansari told reporters in the capital, Tehran.

Sheikh el-Zakzaky was arrested after members of his Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) clashed with the army in the northern city of Zaria.

Campaign group Human Rights Watch said at least 300 IMN members were killed and quickly buried in a mass graves during the incident. The Nigerian military denied the claim.

The military accuses the pro-Iranian sect of trying to assassinate army chief Gen Tukur Buratai, which it denies.

Iran is currently embroiled in a diplomatic row with Saudi Arabia over the execution of a prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, BBC reports.